by H P Tune
“Ah, thanks. Yeah, thanks.” Taking a final sip of her half-finished glass of wine, Juliet pushed it back towards the centre of the coffee table and smiled as she took the grey-coloured cushion from Mia. “Make sure you wake me. And I’ll apologise in advance if I start snoring. Just throw something at me.”
“I promise I’ll be gentler than that.” Mia grinned as she withdrew an iPad out of her handbag. It was the last thing Juliet remembered seeing before she fell into unconsciousness.
* * *
By the time Mia checked her e-mails and glanced over, Juliet was sleeping soundly, mouth slightly ajar and face utterly relaxed. Her hands were tucked up under her chin, and her knees were drawn towards her chest. Mia’s hands stilled over the sides of her iPad as she watched Juliet slowly breathing in and out. She could see the edges of a tattoo on the inside of Juliet’s wrist, a slightly faded blue colour, though she couldn’t quite make out what the tattoo was. The same wrist had a handmade bracelet around it, black and red braided thread with some small patterned beads; it was dull and clearly worn. It combined well with the fraying jeans. Clearly, Juliet lived a very different life than Mia. Her clothes had no visible label, and despite a clear lip gloss, her face was makeup free.
Mia, in comparison, had black eyeliner carefully applied, and her mascara brush had grazed her eyelashes twice. A deep blush highlighted her cheekbones, and an illuminating powder had been the final touch to multiple layers of various foundations and powders. Her lips wore a frequently applied bright red lipstick.
Even now, she was still playing her role in upholding the family name and all the expectations that came with that.
There was something very appealing in the way Juliet was casually dressed and the lived-in look she carried. She appeared genuine—authentic. Nothing about Mia screamed façade, though she suspected that everything about her own presentation yelled false pretences. Maybe one day she could buy an old backpack and disappear, leave the Chanel wardrobe behind and don a pair of yoga pants. Maybe she could meditate in Indonesia or attend a Hindu retreat in the crowds of India. Maybe she could write a novel too, hiding away in an apartment in Bruges.
Juliet had the luxury of making independent decisions—booking economy-class tickets and blending into the hordes, going wherever whenever she wanted. Mia was suddenly insanely jealous of the stranger in front of her snoozing her way through a stopover after fate had pulled her into a first-class lounge. She hadn’t planned it, hadn’t even expected it, yet Juliet was just going along with no idea of what was next, bar a loose plan to end up in Belgium with her backpack and laptop. How freeing it must be.
Slowly, Mia smiled. She gave a silent laugh as Juliet released the softest of tiny snores. How incredible it was that Juliet trusted a stranger enough to fall asleep in her presence with all of her belongings on the floor and her boarding pass on the table.
Maybe this was the push Mia was looking for, this blonde-haired vision of mystery in front of her. She had a day to figure out how to be someone new, someone less like the person she had been born to become.
And more like this hauntingly stunning woman that had literally fallen across her path.
CHAPTER 2
“Juliet, it’s time to wake up.” Mia placed her handbag where she had been sitting. Juliet didn’t move. Glancing at the monitors, Mia located their flight with a nod to herself. “They’re boarding,” she said. “We need to make our way to the gate.”
Juliet released a soft moan, her eyelids shivering a little but staying stubbornly closed. Relocating Juliet’s bags next to her own, Mia crouched by Juliet’s side. “Hey. Jules, honey, we need to move. It’s time to board.”
“Huh?” Juliet gasped, eyes shooting open when Mia tugged at her forearm.
“Our flight. We have to go.”
“Flight?” Juliet’s eyes darted from Mia to their surroundings. “Oh, yeah, flight.”
“Sorry. You can sleep more on the plane…”
“Agh, I feel like a train wreck.”
“Well, you don’t look like one.” Mia hoisted Juliet’s daypack onto her own back before holding the laptop bag out as Juliet slowly rose to her feet, rubbing her eyes and stretching her back. “Here. They won’t go without us, but I really hate having my name called out over the loudspeaker.”
“Thanks, yeah. Umm, do you know our gate?”
“Yes, all organised. Just follow me. Grab that water if you want it. I’ve got an extra bottle.”
Juliet just nodded, again rubbing her eyes and clearly trying to orientate herself. “Hey, I can take my bag.” Her words were slurred with sleep as she blindly followed Mia towards the exit and towards the first travelator.
Mia shrugged. “I’ve got everything. You just concentrate on staying on your feet.”
“I don’t really know you, but you seem to be enjoying this far too much.” Juliet stood in barely an upright slouch on the travelator as she inspected Mia with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
“Me? I’m just helping you out, remember? Without me, you would have snoozed those hours away in a very uncomfortable sterilised chair or, worse, on a patch of revolting carpet.”
“Have I mentioned that I owe you one, Mallania? Because I do.”
Mia scowled. “Just because you saw my passport does not mean you get to throw my full name around, you know.”
“Oh, crap.” With a loud gasp, Juliet patted her pockets repeatedly. “My boarding pass…”
“Relax, I got it. It was on the table the whole time. I have it in my document wallet, don’t stress.”
Juliet finally returned Mia’s smile. “I swear I’ve travelled around the world and have never once lost a passport or boarding pass or missed a flight.”
“That’s what happens when you have no sleep for a couple of days. It’s not great for your cognitive abilities.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“Next gate,” said Mia. Juliet fell in step next to her. Their height was dramatically different as they stood side by side, she noticed, though if Mia were to slip off her heels, they would only differ by an inch or so. “But don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of time to sleep over the next eighteen hours.”
“Which reminds me,” Juliet said, her expression looking perplexed. “I know why I’m flying this ridiculous route to Europe, but what about you? I was just saving money, and then they completely screwed up.”
Mia shrugged. “It was booked for me, sort of. I didn’t really mind. I was originally going to spend a few nights in Dubai, to go…umm, yeah, to go and ah…what is it? Ah, do some shopping.” Her cheeks flushed red. She wondered for a paranoid moment if Juliet knew she was lying, knowingly allowing her to indulge in the appearance of truth-telling.
“Sorry, I’m getting tired too,” Mia tried to allay her discomfort with a kernel of truth. “I ended up changing my flight instead. I quite like flying.”
“Really? I hate it.”
“That’s because you’re always cramped at the back of the plane.”
Juliet laughed and rolled her shoulders. “Maybe. I mean, I do fly. It’s not like I don’t, but I don’t really like it. The whole take-off and landing, the idea that we’re all stuck in this little tiny cylinder in the middle of the sky.”
“You want to take something? I’ve got a relaxant in my purse.” Mia kept her tone casual, as if everyone in the world carried a supply of Diazepam. She didn’t want Juliet thinking she was some kind of drug addict. Then she wondered why she cared what Juliet thought.
But Juliet merely laughed and shook her head. “No, no, I’m good, thank you. You shouldn’t take that crap, you know. It’s not good for you.”
Mia glanced sideways. No one in her circle would ever have cared enough to make such a comment. Not to mention, Diazepam was the just a drop in the ocean, along with the boutique party pills and lines of cocaine that were occasionally brought out after the wine flow slowed. “Yeah, worse things, though, I suppose.”
“Of course. The
re always is.” Juliet fell behind Mia as they headed directly past the economy queue and onto the aircraft. Juliet’s eyes went visibly wide as Mia stopped and deposited the backpack onto Juliet’s expansive seat and her own case was placed in the overhead compartment.
“You need anything out of that?” Mia asked.
“Umm, I might just get out the book I’m reading…” Her fingers scurried beneath the zipper as an attendant waited.
“Anything good?” Mia plopped herself down in her seat across the aisle.
“An oldie but a goodie—Wuthering Heights. I thought it might get me feeling nostalgic and in the writing mood.”
“Is it working?”
Juliet laughed loudly, and it elicited a chuckle from Mia. Juliet had the most incredulous, infectious laugh. “Not even remotely.”
“I’m sure once you arrive, you’ll be writing nonstop.”
“Hmmm,” Juliet said, smirking as she sat down and opened various compartments, exploring the seat and the controls. “I appreciate your confidence.”
“Something tells me that you could do anything you set your mind to.”
“Really? You think? You’ve made a quick assessment of me, Mia.”
Mia nodded. “I do, and I’ll have you know that I’m seldom wrong.”
“We’ll see.” Juliet cocked her head. “We’ll see.”
* * *
To Juliet, long-haul flights felt like an unending, special kind of torture. She had been on enough flights to know they were always filled with people experiencing some kind of emotion. Some were devastated by their reasons for needing to board the plane—funerals, a bad breakup, a forced work transfer. Others were ecstatic, brimming with nervous excitement at a long-planned trip or a return home to see family or attend a wedding. A smaller number seemed quieter, reflective, lost. God knew she had probably been all of those things at some point.
Juliet wasn’t sure what she was on this trip, though. Possibly she was none of these things. Mia, too, seemed to be something hard to pinpoint, a traveller that couldn’t be stereotyped into clichéd groups. She was obviously on her way somewhere, for a reason that Juliet wondered if Mia even knew herself.
The only thing she knew was that it had taken forever to get there.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. As you may have noticed, we have begun our descent into Dubai, where the local time is seven p.m. and the temperature is a balmy thirty degrees Celsius…”
Juliet sighed heavily and kicked at her bag as the usual flight announcement commenced. She squeezed her bag into a small cupboard at her feet. Her seatbelt was firm at her hips, and her fingers twisted the blanket that was still extended over her legs. She cast a sideways glance at Mia, surprised to find her watching her movements intently.
They had both slept the first eight hours of the flight, though Mia was watching a movie by the time Juliet fully awakened. For the remainder of the flight, they had alternated between chatting and watching television, reading magazines and newspapers, and sharing comments on everything from current affairs and politics to the latest celebrity gossip. It was smooth and surprisingly easy, simple.
“Best part of the flight, right? The landing?” Mia joked.
Juliet emitted a half-hearted sort of chuckle.
“Come on, relax,” Mia said. “We’ll be on the ground in a half hour, and after a small amount of duty-free shopping, we’ll be sipping champagne in the best lounge.”
“You’ll be duty-free shopping.”
“True.”
“In one of the worst airports in the world.”
“Oh, that’s harsh. Surely there’s worse. I mean, you were saying you’ve been to some of those small and smelly airports in India.”
Juliet screwed up her nose. “Yeah, but even they’re not as busy. Dubai is like Grand Central Station. I don’t really do crowds.”
“You don’t do crowds, and you hate take-offs and landings. I’m learning so much about you, Juliet.”
“Hey, you shouldn’t pick on me when I’m stressing out. At least save it until I can give as good as I get.”
Holding her hands up in front of her, Mia made a show of conceding defeat. “Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll wait until we’re firmly on the ground, at which time I will endlessly tease.” Suddenly, she paused and frowned. “Sorry,” she said, “I just presumed then. Completely.”
Juliet glanced to her side and raised her eyebrows. She had no idea what Mia was presuming.
“That we would stay, you know, together during the stopover.” Mia licked her lips and cocked her head. Juliet wondered if she was nervous. “I know I’m probably not your usual type.”
Juliet shook her head before the plane jerked, and she gave a small, barely audible cry. Recovering her composure, her eyes returned to meet Mia’s, but found them fixed on the flight path screen in front of her. The infallible confidence that Mia had been emanating since their meeting had disappeared. Mia’s silence and zoned-out stare confused her.
“We have over seven hours in this godforsaken airport we’re about to land in and then yet another flight that’s eight odd hours long. So the answer is, ‘No, I’ll save my own company for the months I have ahead of me.’”
Mia nodded and offered a small smile, but her shoulders remained hunched as she folded in on herself.
“But back up a little,” Juliet said. “What’s this crap about my usual type?”
“I just thought that you probably only socialise with arty types…”
“Mmm,” Juliet said. “Like, other authors, artists, musicians, that kind of thing?”
“Umm, yeah?”
“And free spirits, save-the-forest types…”
“Exactly.”
“You’re right. I usually just sit around campfires and pass around bongs.”
Mia’s glance jerked up suddenly, eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar. “You’re joking, obviously.”
Juliet grinned back at her. “Yes, yes, I am. I don’t have a type, Mia. I like meeting people from all different backgrounds, and I don’t judge a book by its cover. As a supposedly decent writer, the concept of superficially judging people just annoys me. Although something tells me that you probably haven’t spent your life talking to people like me.”
“I’m not that interested in being who I’ve always been,” Mia said softly, scooping her hair away from her neck. She secured it in a bun by a gold clip as the plane again shuddered through a change in atmospheric pressure.
Juliet’s hands gripped the armrests. The seatbelt sign flicked on, and the attendants rushed past them to finalise their pre-landing tasks.
“You good?” Mia asked.
“I hate flying.”
“I can see that. Should I ask why you continue to fly when you clearly don’t enjoy it?”
Juliet rolled her eyes and didn’t bother responding. She was completely dumfounded that people would allow fear to stop them from doing anything.
“Ten minutes,” Mia said, “fifteen tops, we’ll be on the ground.”
“This is why I never travel with anyone. People feel compelled to try and make me feel better.”
“Does it work?”
“Never.”
“You poor thing.” Mia reached across to offer a friendly squeeze of her shoulder, while Juliet managed only a tortured expression in return. “All right, distraction. Does distraction work?”
“Nope.”
“What if I told you that while you were sleeping, I saw those two over there, in 2A and 2D, sneak into the bathroom together?” Her forced, low whisper made Juliet perk up.
“What?” She raised her eyes, though her hands maintained their death grip. “Who?”
“Over there, 2A.” With a nod towards a window, she cast her eyes to the right, adding, “and 2D.”
“Oh my God, really?”
“Yes.”
“She, ah, she has to be twice his age?”
“Our flight attendant Jamie thinks at least twice.
”
“That’s…that’s pretty horrific, actually. I used that restroom afterwards.” Juliet shuddered. “I mean, those bathrooms are small.”
“Maybe she’s more flexible than she looks.”
“Mia!”
“What? It’s possible—sit on the toilet or do it against the wall.”
“Are you about to tell me that you’ve done it?”
Mia coughed, and a glimmer of a scowl crossed her face. “No, definitely not. She is at least twice his age, and my guess is that he’s more our age than that teenager sitting back there.”
“Okay, that’s enough distracting. My eyes are burning with just the thought of it, so no more talking.” As if on cue, the wheels of the plane dropped, and the engines slowed with another jerk and uneven dip of the aircraft. “Oh God, just land already. I need my feet on solid ground for a few hours.”
“Almost. Just think of Abuela over there and her toyboy if you’re feeling uncomfortable.”
Juliet laughed and nodded. “Yeah, thanks for that.” They shared a glance and laughed slightly louder before Mia turned her gaze to the view out the window. Juliet continued to softly giggle as she closed her eyes, knuckles white.
They approached unsteadily towards the runway.
* * *
“You know,” Juliet said as she tried to keep up with Mia. They weaved through crowds of rushing people inside Dubai International Airport. “That lip gloss you bought, it pretty much cost…ouch!” She shot a middle-aged man a disgusted look after absorbing an elbow to her stomach. “That lip gloss costs more than my weekly rent in Bruges is going to be.”
“What?” Disbelief seemed to settle in Mia’s eyes.
“Yep.”
“Where the hell are you staying?”
Juliet looked upward. “Details... I don’t really know yet. I’m sure it’s okay. It has a bathroom and heating. What more do I need?”
“Umm, safety? Cleanliness?”